Fast reconfiguration of graphics pipeline state

• US 20080001952A1
• Filed: 06/28/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Markovic, Relja, Glassenberg, Samuel, Srinivasan, Ramanujan
• Granted Patent: US 8,111,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/502
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining

Abstract

Techniques and technologies are provided for binding resources to particular slots associated with shaders in a graphics pipeline. Resource dependencies between resources being utilized by each shader can be determined, and, based on these resource dependencies, common resource/slot associations can be computed. Each common resource/slot association identifies a particular one of the resources to be associated with a particular one of the slots.

Claims

1. A method for binding resources to particular slots associated with shaders in a graphics pipeline, comprising:

determining resource dependencies between resources being utilized by each shader; and

computing, based on the resource dependencies, common resource/slot associations, wherein each common resource/slot association identifies a particular one of the resources to be associated with a particular one of the slots.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein determining resource dependencies between resources being utilized by each shader, comprises:

determining, at each shader, a particular resource/slot arrangement for each shader, wherein the particular resource/slot arrangement for each shader specifies which resources are used in each of the particular slots of each resource; and

determining, based on the particular resource/slot arrangements, resource dependencies between resources being utilized by each shader.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein computing common resource/slot associations, comprises:

computing, based on the resource dependencies, common resource/slot associations, wherein each common resource/slot association identifies a particular one of the resources to be associated with a particular one of the slots such that a cost of resource reconfiguration is reduced when switching between shaders.

4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising:

reorganizing, at each of the shaders, the resources bound to each slot according to the common resource/slot associations.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein computing common resource/slot associations, comprises:

(a) determining a particular one of the resources to be bound to a first slot; and

(b) determining a particular one of the remaining resources to be bound to a second slot; and

repeating step (b) for each remaining slot until a predetermined number of the slots has one of the resources associated therewith.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein determining a first resource to be bound to a first slot, comprises:

calculating a cost for binding each resource to the first slot, based on the resource dependencies between resources being utilized by each shader;

selecting the particular one of the resources having the lowest cost; and

designating the resource selected as having the lowest cost as the first resource.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein determining a second resource to be bound to a second slot, comprises:

calculating a cost for binding each of the remaining resource to the second slot;

selecting the remaining resource having the lowest cost; and

designating the remaining resource selected as having the lowest cost as the second resource.

8. A method according to claim 6, wherein calculating a cost for binding each resource to the first slot, comprises:

(a) determining a number of state changes required to render each shader if a particular one of the resources is bound to the first slot, based on the resource dependencies between resources being utilized by each shader program; and

(b) determining a number of wasted slots required if the particular one of the resources is bound to the first slot, based on the resource dependencies between resources being utilized by each shader program;

(c) calculating a first cost associated with binding that particular one of the resources the first slot, based on the number of state changes and the number of wasted slots; and

repeating steps (a) through (c) until a cost has been calculated for binding each of the resources the first slot.

9. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

binding each of the particular resources to the particular slot specified by the common resource/slot associations.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein each shader has the same common resource/slot associations such that at each shader the same particular resource is associated with the same particular one of the slots.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the resources comprise constant buffers.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the resources comprise constant buffers at least one of textures and samplers.

13. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

14. A graphics application programming interface comprising computer executable modules for carrying out the steps of claim 1.

15. An application programming interface for instructing a graphics processing unit to perform the method of claim 1.

16. A method reconfiguring a dependency tree comprising a number of resources, wherein each specific resource is bound to a slot of a parent object in the dependency tree, the method, comprising:

scanning each of the resource dependencies in the dependency tree;

computing a cost associated with each of a number of different resource configurations of the dependency tree; and

selecting the particular resource reconfiguration of the dependency tree which minimizes the amount of device reconfiguration when switching between different shaders.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein each resource reconfiguration of the dependency tree changes the particular slots certain resources are bound to.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein selecting, comprises:

selecting the particular resource reconfiguration of the dependency tree which minimizes the number of slots that would need to be re-bound in order to switch between different shaders.

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein the method is performed for offline content generation, and further comprising:

storing the particular resource reconfiguration of the dependency tree.

20. The method according to claim 16, wherein the method is performed dynamically at application run time/load time.